Final Paper: Culture and Crisis

Topic B: In Dancing in the Dark, Morris Dickstein writes that one of the characteristics of

Great Depression culture is its “fascination with America itself.” How does this statement

apply to the context and cultural productions of the time? Please analyze specific examples.

“ The youth of America is its oldest tradition: it has been lasting for 300 years”1 said Oscar

Wilde. This came as a conclusion of the observations he made during his long journey in the

late 19th century USA. This embodies a general perception in the world of the end of the 19th

century and of the early 20th century, the United States were perceived as a young nation

deprived of a genuine identity and culture. This idea was very pregnant in Europe, so much

that it even had repercussions upon political matters as proved how strongly European

powers disregarded the Monroe doctrine and the US foreign policy until the end of the

second world war2. The inconsideration for american culture and identity was also very

important inside America’s intellectual spheres and cultural figures. Indeed, the most famous

american artists of the 1920s were inspired, and mainly focused on what was happening east

of the Atlantic. Ernst Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald or Gertrude Stein are among the most

significant examples of that fact, both of them took inspiration from european themes and

places such as Paris and the Parisian lifestyle3 (especially in the case of Hemingway and

Paris est une fête) in detriment of their home.

1
DUPUIGRENET DESROUSSILLES, François, WILDE, Oscar, Oscar Wilde en Amérique, Bartillat, Paris,
2016.
2
HERRING, George C., From Colony to Superpower: U.S. Foreign Relations Since 1776, Oxford University
Press, New York, 2008, pp. 43-49.
3
HART, Jeffrey, The Living Moment: Modernism in a Broken World, Northwestern University Press Evanston,
Illinois, 2012, pp. 68-76.
 The cultural works of the Great Depression mark a turnover in how America perceived

itself, some even referred to it as the true birth of the “american culture and identity”4. Even

going further, Claude FISCHER considers that the symbols and the ideas that emerged from

that period are at the very basis of the United States representations and values that guides

most of the cultural productions in the USA today5.

However, according to the definition of culture by the French anthropologist Claude

Lévi-Strauss, which is the following: “all cultures can be considered as a set of symbolic

systems, in the forefront of which are language, matrimonial rules, economic relations, art,

science and religion. All these systems aim at expressing certain aspects of physical and

social reality, and even more so, the relations that these two types of reality have with each

other and that the symbolic systems themselves have with each other.”6; culture shouldn't be

flexible enough to be changed in a set of ten years. This is why more than a birth we can talk

of a revelation of America’s culture to itself. This forms a lead to explain Morris Dickstein

quote and concept of auto-fascination of America during that period. Indeed most of the

cultural works that emerged from that period took inspiration, not in fantasized

representations of Europe, but in their most direct and common environment: the United

States of the 1930s, the America of the Great Depression.

Therefore, in what way did the Great Depression encourage the reconnection of american

cultural works with American themes?

4
FISCHER, Claude S., Made in America: A Social History of American Culture and Character, University of
Chicago Press, Chicago, 2011, p. 323.
5
FISCHER, Claude S., Made in America: A Social History of American Culture and Character, University of
Chicago Press, Chicago, 2011, pp. 324-340.
6
LEVI-STRAUSS, Claude, Introduction à l'œuvre de Marcel Mauss, PUF, 1950, p. 19.
 The emergence of a genuine american symbolic at the time, holds in great part to the

exceptional turmoil the Great Depression gave birth to. Indeed, before, American artists met

America, America met itself. First on a social aspect, some part of the masses were brought

to light in an unprecedented way. Especially the workers and the farmers, the rehabilitation of

those populations are a direct consequence of the aftermath of the Depression and the need of

the political classes to reaffirm the pride of those who constitute the basis of its electorate.

The most significant example in that regard is probably the political agenda of Senator Huey

Long. The popular 1930s Louisiana senator based his speech on the simple sentence “Every

man a King”. This idea and the simplicity of its expression was revolutionary in the USA

politics. Long called for a representation of what he called “the common folk that forms the

backbone of our country”7. In the meantime, more mainstream political figures contributed to

this phenomenon, especially with the New Deal policies in which the farmers and the

workers occupied a central position. Some extracts inside Roosvelt inaugural speech

particularly embodies that emphasis over the used-to-be forgotten and yet most important part

of the country. There is a clear contamination of the political discourse to the artistic and

cultural sphere, indeed, in the artwork of the time the worker or the farmer becomes an

aesthetic figure as meaningful and powerful as the high-society new-yorker gentleman of

Fitzgerald works or the Doughboy of Hemingway’s. We can observe at that time a

multiplication of works of fiction depicting the realities of american workers of the time.

Among those, Of mice and men by John Steinbeck. Through the tale of two agricol workers,

Steinbeck expresses the realities of the agricultural field of work that millions of Americans

are taking a part in, at the time. One of the main characters, George Milton, dreams to possess

his own exploitation, to become “his own boss, as every man should be'', in a way his own

king. Such themes were almost never tackled by the american literature before. Even though

7
LONG, Huey, Every Man a King: The Autobiography of Huey P. Long, Da Capo Press, Boston, 1996.
it appears today as the most important aspect of the american culture and of the idea of the

self made man. That concept wasn’t born with Steinbeck’s work, as it has ancient roots,

linked to the protestant ethic. But it is one of the first and most significant times it appears in

a work of fiction made by an American, taking place in America and over Americans8. Even

more relevant in the case of Steinbeck, is the fact that he covered as a journalist various

events such as strikes or expropriations in agricol properties in the early stages of the crisis.

Those were the ferments of his work, and a true expression of the meeting between American

artists and America. Here is one of the first aspects of the fascination of America for itself

that Dickstein describes, being the fascination of America with its society.

Interestingly, Of mice and men doesn’t only depicts the emergence of a representation of

the popular American as an embodiment of American values. Indeed, it also shows another

important component of American culture, and more specifically testifies of its blossom

during the period. Which is the intimate link of Americans with itinerance and nature. The

Great Depression had, as consequences, great movements of populations9, especially

workers, going from one job to another, sometimes throughout the continent. From this

reality unfolds a romantic image of the “hobo”, a modern working-class Ulysses, traveling

the country. Many works from the time took inspiration from this image. The two main

characters from the novel Of mice and men for instance. But also many cinematographic

productions of the time, it is very interesting to point out that it is during the Great

Depression and the romanticisation of the “hobo” that was born the road movie genre10. One

8
WYLLIE, Irvin G., The Self Made Man in America: The Myth of Rags to Riches, Rutgers University Press,
New Brunswick, 1955, p.132.
9
MCELVAINE, Robert S., The Great Depression: America 1929-1941, Times Book, New York, 1993, pp.
204-219.
10
LADERMAN, David, What a Trip: The Road Film and American Culture, Journal of Film and Video, n°48,
Summer 1996, pp.41-57.
of the most acclaimed movies of 1934, It happened one night by Frank Capra with Clark

Gable and Claudette Colbert is the perfect example of the advent of itinerance and classical

american themes in mainstream American work of art. That is the only movie that won

Oscars in the five most prestigious domains (best movie, best director, best scenario, best

actress, best actor) which proves its popular impact, even at the time. In it we follow the

romance and the journey from Miami to New-York of an unemployed journalist and the

daughter of a rich industry tycoon. Through the story, the film tackles various themes of the

Depression, showing poverty, unemployment and even starvation in spite of the Hays Code in

vigor at the time. The trip is a perfect narrative tool to execute a portrait of American society

while telling an entertaining story. It also turns out, that the journey is a theme that is an

important component of the American culture, for its strong links with the first settlers and

afterward the pioneers of the West. Through the trip we also observe the apparition of a

second element that conveys the idea of Dickstein of a fascination of America with itself.

Indeed, in the meantime, artists use as a basis for their work, the territory of the USA, in

that regard the fascination lies in the landscapes of America as well as in its people. The

expression of that fascination can be found in the development of the imaginary of the typical

American landscape, natural as much as urban. It was mainly portrayed in the frame of the

tourism campaign launched by the United States of America Travel Bureau in the early

1930s. The Federal Artistic Project, that employed many American artists, was mandated to

create a series of images showing the splendor of American landscapes. From that order,

emerged a number of grandiloquent depictions of the beauty and variety of the American

nature and city. Those gave America a face11, it contributed to the aestheticization of the

urban landscape that was mainly portrayed as desincarnated, as in the words of the French

writer Céline “ a city that stands still”. From this new imagery, places of America were now

11
ROTHBARD, Murray N., America’s Great Depression, Ludwig Von Mises Inst., Auburn, Alabama, 2000, pp.
107-109.
valid forms of inspiration for every American artist. Here is a second aspect of the fascination

of America for itself Dickstein describes, being the fascination of America for its land.

The final aspect of the “fascination”/”revelation” lies in its most active dimension, those

are not only spontaneous. In fact, they are much more the result of an active political will of

shaping America’s culture. In order to counteract the potential desunion of the nation that

roamed in the aftermath of the crisis. The “fascination with itself” can only be that significant

and homogeneous, to describe the cultural pieces of the time, because the political power of

the period was greatly involved in the artistic productions and diffusion.

Bourdieu gives the concepts of culture and symbolic a hypnotic power, according to him

they form the privileged means of the gentle imposition of the arbitrary12. From this element

of definition, I will essentially retain the active and sensitive dimension that Bourdieu gives

to the symbolic and the cultural. In that regard, there is a clear interest in the direction the

cultural work of the time took. The New Deal cultural policies had the clear intent of “Cheer

up” the Americans, and to do so to create a common myth, to insure a renewed pride in

America. Edward Bruce, the director of the Public Works of Art Projects expressed it very

clearly when talking about the result of the program and the work of the artists involved in it :

“[...]the same feeling I get when I smell a sound fresh ear of corn… They make me feel

comfortable about America.” 13. There, the idea of a need to reaffirm the American values

appears, during those troubled times the artists must show the way to the people and inspire

them toward the fulfillment of the nation’s objectives: the reviving of the economy. Roosvelt

imagines that culture can play a key-role in the revival of the nation, and charges Harry

Hopkins of the realisation of the cultural part of the New Deal project: The Federal One

12
DUBOIS, Jacques, DURAND, Pascal, WINKIN, Yves [dir.], Le Symbolique et le social, la Réception
internationale de la pensée de Pierre Bourdieu, University of Liège Editions, 2005, pp. 13-28.
13
BADGER, Anthony J., The New Deal, The Depression Years, 1933-1940. Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, 2002,
pp.215-227.
Project. It is important to point out the plurality of the domains in which the program was

active: literature, dance, theatre, painting, cinema and so on. This shows the globality of the

movement started by the US government. This important scale can enable us to consider the

policies of a New Deal as a true intent to trigger a cultural revolution.

The real success of that policy holds to the fact that through its system and organisation the

project gave the opportunity to a larger part of the society to express itself. Indeed,

african-american, as well as women are involved in the project14: through Negroes Theater,

the rehabilitation of jazz-music ( the WPA song by Louis Armstrong being one of its clearest

expressions) or the recognition of the female writer Hallie Flanagan). By giving a chance to

another part of America to express itself, the program permitted the true emergence of an

American aesthetic, the one of the masses for the masses. Indeed, the sociological profile of

the artists before the 1930s were way less diverse, and the european fascination corresponded

to the fascination the elites had for Europe. After the crisis hit the USA, the New Deal offered

a democratization of culture and art. Therefore enabling the expression of a new purely

American culture. This embodies the main aspect and source of the “fascination of America

for itself” Dickstein describes, being the fascination of America of its people, by its people

and for its people.

Therefore the Great Depression and the policies that emerged from it corresponded to the

revelation of the potential of American culture to its artists. Indeed, through the turmoil

caused by the Depression and through the political agenda and economic goals of Roosevelt

filled a void in American culture: the fascination each nation entertained for itself. The

statement of Dickstein well applies at the period, as it is in this one that many of America’s

14
MCKINZIE, Richard D., The New Deal for Artists, Princeton University Press, 1973, pp. 205-215.
cultural representations and symbols were derived from: the self made man, the hobo, the

itinerance, the variety of its landscapes as examples. However, the democratization of culture

and its expression begun by the New Deal is still incomplete, and some argue that the

COVID crisis may break out on a new cultural revolution allowing some new themes more

consistent to what is America today to rise up. In that regard another quote of Oscar Wilde

stays relevant: “Perhaps, after all, America never has been discovered. I myself would say

that it had merely been detected.”

 Bibliography

General Volumes:
DUBOIS, Jacques, DURAND, Pascal, WINKIN, Yves [dir.], Le Symbolique et le social, la
Réception internationale de la pensée de Pierre Bourdieu, Editions de l’Université de Liège,
2005, p. 13-28.

HERRING, George C., From Colony to Superpower: U.S. Foreign Relations Since 1776,
Oxford University Press, New York, 2008, pp. 43-49.

MAUSS, Marcel, Sociologie et anthropologie, PUF, 1950, p. 281-310.

LEVI-STRAUSS, Claude, Introduction à l'œuvre de Marcel Mauss, PUF, 1950, p.19.

Specialized Volumes:
BADGER, Anthony J., The New Deal, The Depression Years, 1933-1940, Chicago: Ivan R.
Dee, 2002, pp.215-227.

FISCHER, Claude S., Made in America: A Social History of American Culture and
Character, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 2011, p. 323.

HART, Jeffrey, The Living Moment: Modernism in a Broken World, Northwestern University

Press Evanston, Illinois, 2012, pp. 68-76.

MCELVAINE, Robert S., The Great Depression: America 1929-1941, Times Book, New

York, 1993, pp. 204-219.

MCKINZIE, Richard D., The New Deal for Artists, Princeton University Press, 1973, pp.

205-215.
ROTHBARD, Murray N., America’s Great Depression, Ludwig Von Mises Inst., Auburn,

Alabama, 2000, pp. 107-109.

WYLLIE, Irvin G., The Self Made Man in America: The Myth of Rags to Riches, Rutgers
University Press, New Brunswick, 1955, p.132.

Scientific Articles:

LADERMAN, David, What a Trip: The Road Film and American Culture, Journal of Film

and Video, n°48, Summer 1996, pp.41-57

Biographic Volumes:

DUPUIGRENET DESROUSSILLES, François, WILDE, Oscar, Oscar Wilde en Amérique,

Bartillat, Paris, 2016.

LONG, Huey, Every Man a King: The Autobiography of Huey P. Long, Da Capo Press,

Boston, 1996.